Research data management
At its broadest level, research data can be defined as any information that has been collected, observed, generated or created while undertaking research. Depending on the research context and subject discipline, data can be quantitative or qualitative, primary materials or analysed data, physical or digital, and produced in a range of different formats, including data files, images, documents, surveys, statistics and specimens.
Research data management is the process and activities relating to data collection, organisation, storage, back-up, sharing, archiving and disposal of data. Managing research data responsibly has many benefits for you, other researchers and the university as a whole, by aligning with the Principles of Research Integrity Principle 4: Fairness, Principle 5: Respect and Principle 7: Accountability. It also enables data generated in research projects to be preserved and accessed now and in the future.
Responsible research data management is also important for legal, statutory, ethical and funding compliance purpose, whether you are creating data or reusing existing data. Increasingly funders and publishers require research data to be made openly available to support ongoing discovery and access, and to facilitate its potential reuse in the global open research environment.
Research data management at UOW
The Research Analytics, Systems and Support (RASS) team in the Research Services Office provides centralised coordination and support for the advanced research computing needs of UOW researchers and HDR students, including research data management. The team in the RSO can provide assistance with aspects of research data management, including planning, collection, storage, archival, sharing, desensitisation, licencing, and governance. UOW's research data management guidelines will help you get started.
Research data management plans at UOW
The UOW Research Data Management Policy requires that a research data management plan (RDMP) accompanies every new research project. Funders, such as ARC, also require an RDMP to be in place before projects commence.
Generally, the project leader is responsible for creating the plan and updating it to reflect any significant changes in the focus and findings of the research. An RDMP is a living document that reflects the current state of a research project.
Research data management planning tool
UOW’s research data management planning tool is ReDBox. ReDBox helps you manage your RDMP and provides one location for all researchers on a project to be able to access multiple data locations and links.
This video (0:55) is an introduction to ReDBox at UOW:
Video transcript: Introduction to RedBox at UOW
Introducing ReDBox, UOW's Research Data Management tool.
ReDBox can save researchers valuable time by creating a Research Data Management Plan that captures research project metadata.
This might include who can access your research data, what data will be collected, where it will be stored, and for how long.
Research Data Management Plans assist researchers by satisfying major grant scheme funding requirements, triggering research data storage requests, and supporting ethics applications, all while ensuring compliance with UOW’s Research Data Management Policy.
Visit ReDBox to create a Research Data Management Plan and begin streamlining your research project management.
If you need help, please reach out to ReDBox support.
End transcript.
Research data management support and training
Research data management training is available to all UOW researchers through the Research Data Storage and Management Moodle site. The University recommends that HDRs, Honours students and researchers new to UOW complete this training to better understand the Research Data Management Policy, as well as practices and supports in place for researchers. The Researcher Toolkit (UOW intranet link) also provides more information about managing your research data.
